Diary: What Has Happened: New Years 2009.

I'm going to clip along a little bit faster here, because I want to get back to the present and write about the moment again.

For New Years we drove down to Ohio, where we celebrated 2009's birth with dad J and some delightfully bitter IPA at the Weasel Boy Microbrewery in Zanesville. I got my wife a painting, which was a significant purchase, but the sort of thing you have to leap upon when you get the opportunity. We got home awhile after midnight and caught up on some sleep, which was much needed at that point.

On New Years day we celebrated (of course) with sauer kraut and pork. We went to church, finished giving out our Christmas presents and spent some time picking up a last few items at the Colony Square Mall. We did not, tragically, have a chance to stop at Nichols for a slaw dog.

On Friday, we visited mom alone (since Bill is out of state), and Julie came with us. Then on Saturday we swung up toward Canton/Akron and went out to a Mediterranean place for lunch with Jeff and Chelsea. The town we were in was technically Massillon, which is comparable in population to Burton or Bridgeport. It's a big football town, and all around were gigantic murals situating the town in a divine order of athletic heroism ("and then God created Massilon"). Evidently each boy who is born in the local hospital is given a footbal. Weird as that is (after all, it is Ohio) the murals were absolutely visionary, massively scaled, beautifully executed, and diligently maintained.

Southeast Ohio is in the foothills of the Appalachians; it's gorgeous. We returned to Zanesville and visited with John and Sue for awhile, before spending the last night at dad's. The next day, we drove off past the giant basket of Dresden, saw Mandy and Justin on the way back, and got home late in the evening. It was a fun trip.

To be continued...